WASHINGTON - FEBRUARY 3: Presidential hopeful Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) speaks during the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Winter Meeting at the Capitol Hilton on February 3, 2007 in Washington, D.C. DNC Chairman Howard Dean led the meeting which took place over the last two days. (Photo by Jamie Rose/Getty Images)Vice President Joe Biden says the Obama administration will do everything in its power to ensure fair voting in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling stopping part of the Voting Rights Act enforcement. (Photo by Jamie Rose/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden says the Obama administration will do everything in its power to ensure fair voting in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling stopping part of the Voting Rights Act enforcement.

Biden said from the White House Tuesday that the Supreme Court “upset a well-established practice” by halting enforcement of the most powerful tool to stop voting discrimination.

Biden called the Voting Rights Act the “cornerstone of the American civil rights movement” and said it spurred him to run for the Senate 40 years ago. The vice president helped oversee reauthorization of the law as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

He said he and others in the administration will work with Congress to pass new legislation in response to the ruling.